This invention relates generally to electrical terminals and more specifically to electrical terminals having a resilient cantilevered contact section or tongue for engaging a contact of an electrical device such as a lamp bulb
U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,213 issued to James M. Drapcho et al Feb. 11, 1992 and assigned to General Motors Corporation discloses a lamp socket having feed terminals 88, 90. Each feed terminal comprises an elongated narrow base plate 96 integrally formed with a pair of laterally spaced upstanding side walls 98 and 100. A resilient cantilevered contact section 102 or tongue is reversely bent from a free end of the base plate 96 and terminates with a foot 104 which engages the base plate adjacent longitudinally spaced pairs of crimp wings 106, 110. The crimp wings 106 are attached to the stripped conductor core end of a feed cable 108 while crimp wings 110 clamp a cable seal 112 having ring type sealing ribs to the insulation jacket of the feed cable 108.
These feed terminals have a major drawback associated with the manner in which the resilient cantilevered contact tongue 102 is provided by being reversely bent from the free end of the base plate 96. This design configuration requires an extremely long blank strip for forming the feed terminal and results in considerable scrap when the feed terminal is stamped out of the blank strip. Another drawback of the contact section is that the curved mid span of apex portion of the contact tongue that engages the solder bead contact of the lamp bulb 14 is flat in cross section. This flat cross section produces low contact forces because it yields as the lamp bulb is seated in the lamp socket. The flat cross section also makes it difficult to seat the lamp bulb properly as it is rotated into position because the solder bead contacts of the lamp bulb scrape on the sharp edges of the flat cross section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,888 issued to James L. Winger Feb. 28, 1984 discloses a printed circuit edgeboard connector having terminals 16 that comprise a resilient contact tongue 45 that is attached to the free end of a base plate by a perpendicular tab that is integrally attached to the respective longitudinal edges of the base plate and the contact tongue. This reduces the length of the blank strip that is needed to form the terminal substantially and likewise reduces the scrap. However, the resilient contact tongue still has a flat cross section and thus produces low contact forces. Moreover the resilient contact tongue is not suitably configured for use in a lamp bulb socket and in this regard is even less desirable than the resilient contact tongue of the Drapcho terminal discussed above Another drawback of the Winger terminal is that the open front end of the terminal and the high position of the contact tongue provide excellent possibilities for the terminals tangling with each other during handling and assembly particularly after the terminals are attached to electric cables which are then handled in large bundles.